Aira Explorer

Category

Description of App

What is Aira?

Aira is an app that provides on-demand, remote visual interpreting for the blind and low vision community to enhance independence and efficiency. With one tap, connect with a professional Visual Interpreter and work together to accomplish a wide range of tasks. Anytime you encounter an obstacle related to visual information, Aira can assist. It is a trusted and secure tool that can support every realm of your life—on your own terms.

How Does Aira Work?

Download the free Aira app on your smartphone, create an account, and with one tap connect with a professional Visual Interpreter. Aira streams live video, including your GPS location, and through an integrated dashboard, a Visual Interpreter can immerse themselves in your surroundings. They will use your phone’s camera to assist you to better understand your surroundings by navigating, describing, narrating, and reading. They have access to web-based data, including maps, location tracking, search engines, text-based messaging, and even rideshare integration. This is all carefully calibrated to provide our blind and low vision users, who we call Explorers, with a seamless experience.

How Does Access AI Work?

Access AI is Aira’s image chat feature that is free for all Explorers, whether they have a subscription or not. Simply tap the Access AI button on the home screen menu, and then take or upload an image. Send it through the chat, and an AI description will be generated. Ask questions, get refined answers, or for added confidence, use Aira Verify to confirm the description with a Visual Interpreter. Some popular uses of this free tool include getting info about labels, signs, and printed menus, choosing outfits, and getting readings from digital displays like thermostats.

How Can I Get Free Aira Minutes??

Aira has individual subscriptions available, but there are many ways to get free minutes without one! Our Access Partners are leading organizations that provide free access to Aira’s services to their customers, visitors, students, and employees. When you call Aira from an Access Partner location, the offer will automatically be applied, and you can connect with a Visual Interpreter at no cost to you. To manually search for Access Partner offers, open the app, and click “Browse Access Offers.” You can scroll through recently used offers, and even see ones available near you. Some examples of popular locations include Starbucks, Target, and Wegmans. Aira also has many promotional offers, like a daily Five Minute Free Call, free minutes for those seeking employment, and a limited time offer for those who opt into our Build AI data collection program. Learn more about accessing free Aira minutes here: https://aira.io/explorer-tips-how-to-get-free-aira-minutes/

Highlights

- Create a free account and start experiencing visual interpreting without commitment

- Browse Access Offers and promotional offers to get free minutes

- Use Access AI to take or upload a photo, get an instant description, and choose to verify with a human

- Need more minutes? A variety of paid plans support a wide range of needs

- Easily connect to a Visual Interpreter 24/7/365, no reservations required

- Integrate your Lyft account with your Aira

- Join a supportive and inspiring community

- Increase your everyday efficiency and independence

Learn More

Listen to Airacast, our podcast for help getting started, and for news and updates. Subscribe at https://pinecast.com/feed/airacast.

Follow us on Twitter (@airaio), Facebook and YouTube, or learn more at aira.io.

Questions?

Contact Customer Care daily from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM Pacific time.

Phone: 1-800-835-1934

Email: support@aira.io

Version

2.6.4

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

12.1

Accessibility Comments

The Aira app is fully VoiceOver accessible without reservations. A text-based communication feature called Aira Messages makes the service accessible to everyone, including deaf-blind explorers.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Other Comments

While the Aira app is free on the app store, the Aira service is not. Pricing plans start at $29 for basic service. Free guest access is available in some locations and for some tasks, while free promotional minutes are offered for subscribed explorers for other tasks and in other situations. Please visit the company's website for details.

Developer's Twitter Username

@airaio

Recommendations

18 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Darrell Hilliker 6 months 4 weeks ago

Options

Comments

By Just Another B… on Friday, December 21, 2018 - 20:13

It’s very simple…it’s called choice. You can choose to purchase Aira or choose to not purchase Aira. If you would like to offer constructive criticism then please go ahead and do so. The bad mouthing of a product is completely unnecessary on this forum. It does not add value for people that come to this site for information.

By alex wallis on Friday, December 21, 2018 - 20:13

I wasn't bad mouthing the product as you put it, I was expressing skepticism yes but I would like to try it, though I do think even for the minimum plan you have to have a lot of disposable income, as lets say you get the 30 minute plan that would effectively be like your call costing you $1 a minute. as to time magazine saying about how aira is one of the top inventions in 2018 sure you can't buy that coverage, but the press does have a habit of finding out about inventions in the blind world and jumping on them because usually they don't know about alternatives or think they are the first of there kind when they are not. I am sure people find the service useful but I don't plan to try to invent reasons round the house to need it. I do totally get the point about having sighted help on demand though. as I say I do plan to try it but I am in no hurry that's all.

So you're basically saying, that if I want to watch about one movie in a month with audio description and use aira agent to describe it to me, I should be living in sheltered accommodation?
Or if I want to go for a tour in a museum and use aira to describe me the exhibition?
Or go to a different meeting every day?
Or ask aira to monitor my presentation and let me know how the audience reacts
or....
Seriously...

By alex wallis on Friday, December 21, 2018 - 20:13

Not at all, they are all certainly use cases, though dvds mostly have audio description these days, and for me personally I see no value in going round a museum where its all stuff in cases or just pictures, as I find for me personally never having had sight it doesn't matter how well something is described if its in a case and not touchable I see little value in having it described, as lets be honest your not really building an accurate picture of something yourself your absorbing someone elses impression of the visual world. But I do recognize that everyones use cases will be different, my main point is I struggle to see why someone who is very independent would need 300, 400 or more aira minutes that was my main point.
actually I did think of a case where it could be of use something like a social situation such as a party, I am imagining being able to upload pictures of your friends to aira and asking agents to help you locate them within a crowd, as of course electronic methods of finding friends through find my friends on ios will only get you to a rough location. So I am not closed to it being potentially useful, it just has a very high price point. and I resent the idea that you can lose minutes if you don't use them all by the end of a month. I get that your not tied into a fixed contract but I think being able to prepay for a number of minutes to spend as and when a user sees fit should be made possible, but I guess aira relies on a constant monthly stream of income so it wouldn't be in there interests to offer this, I get if your a heavy user paying per month is probably better, but for someone who uses it occasionally even if they spend on the minimum plan for a month then don't use it much during that month that is still a significant amount of money that could be lost at the end of a given month.
It would certainly make me more likely to sign up to aira before I can get to an aira access location if I could pay for minutes then spend them as I see fit. Maybe they could introduce rules where OK you don't have to spend prepaid minutes over a full month but they could expire after two or three months if unused, or you could donate them to someone else, or again just throwing ideas out there, perhaps they could have a central pool of unused minutes and people could be allowed to dip into that pool and get 10 or 15 minutes for free from it in a month.

By techluver on Friday, December 21, 2018 - 20:13

I was using it to walk 4-5 miles from one place to another. I figured better to pay $329 for an unlimitted pool of minutes, and walk everywhere, rather than just uber. Ubers add up, walking is free after the $329, and you can basically go unlimitted distances if you're willing to...

By Abhay on Friday, December 21, 2018 - 20:13

Aira FTW

I’m another Aira explorer as mentioned in the AppStore description you can use it to help navigating your environment read help you format resumes that kind of assistance can be provided if your doing job related tasks available to explorers their are other access offers as well

By The Tetris monster on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - 20:13

Hi. I am from South Africa. I am going to be attending a mainstream school soon. This app would be extremely handy for that. Unfortunately, both the app and service are not available here. I’m sure Internet service providers such as Vodacom, MTN or Sell c might be willing to partner with this app. Can you please investigate and see if this would be possible?

By Ahmed on Friday, February 21, 2020 - 20:13

In reply to by techluver

I could see the reason why Aira took away the unlimited plan was because people were calling the agents repeatedly asking you tell me what you can see? Aira than took away that plan

By KE7ZUM on Friday, February 21, 2020 - 20:13

Actually it was not because of that.

Basically people were sharing the unlimited plan and using about 3000 minutes a month and they were losign money. I still ask aira to discribe stuff if I have the minutes, used it to describe a party I was at and I felt so impowered.

By Superfreq on Friday, February 21, 2020 - 20:13

The app description does not currently reflect the free five minutes that everyone gets, nor does it mention all the new offers related to job searching, QuickBooks, and freedom scientific products.
Additionally, we now have the referral program, as well as a massively expanded list of major access locations.
I am not asking for a list of all of them, but maybe some examples of what could be expected, major airports and museums for instants, could be helpful.
also well worth mentioning is the team viewer integration for PC and mobile, Which opens up an entirely new avenue of assistance.
I believe these are very important points that should be communicated to everyone interested in this app.
clarifying that one does not need to have a hotspot or glasses to use the app now is also vital in my opinion, And I think the price should be changed to free with in app purchases.

By Justin Philips on Saturday, March 21, 2020 - 20:13

News is abuzz that certain glasses are going to be bricked on 3/31.

By Troy on Monday, September 21, 2020 - 20:13

For those who are bashing aira about the free offer changes, you got to understand that aira is a business and businesses have to adjust accordingly especially times like these. A lot of people were also abusing the free offer and I think they eventually caught on. I am still happy with the service.

By alex wallis on Monday, September 21, 2020 - 20:13

Hi all, well I thought I would come on to let everyone know that my views on aira have completely changed.
when I expressed certain opinions on aira a few years ago this was before I had left home and moved into work. Now that I have relocated to an environment where I got very limited rehabilitation services and had to be quite self reliant I have truly found the benefits of having aira and am a complete convert to use of the service.

In fact I would like to publicly apologize to anyone who I disagreed with in the past on the value of aira and who might have been offended by my uninformed views. I hadn't had the real need to use it before and I think really it is a case of needing to use it and integrate it into your life which previously I hadn't done due to not having left home at that point.
Actually since moving to London I have definitely found it worthwhile to be on the advanced plan, and I can honestly say without aira I don't think I would have adapted to life in London as well as I have done especially when it comes to navigating and going to different places.

I wish I could remove my previously held views from this entry as they really don't reflect my current experiences or opinion of the service, but I suspect as people have made comments on them it wouldn't be practical to go through and remove my views and comments relating to them.

But I can honestly say I can't recommend aira highly enough to people. I mostly use it for navigation but have also used it with a few shopping tasks and to get recipes transcribed.

By alex wallis on Monday, September 21, 2020 - 20:13

You really should contact support, there is nothing we can do to help you on here, really a 5s is a quite old phone though. Support is your best option rather than talking to us as they can look at your account properly.

By Siobhan on Thursday, July 21, 2022 - 20:13

In the U.S. here, but remember that Be My Eyes volunteers were just that. I'm sorry but if i need a bank transaction taken care of, or even say reading a pregnancy test, you can be damn sure i'll use someone who has signed a NDA. Sorry for the odd examples, just wanted to put that out there. I have, now must get coffee.

By Jo Billard on Thursday, July 21, 2022 - 20:13

Also, it is highly inadvisable to show a Be My Eyes volunteer sensitive information like bank statements or any official paperwork, as they are not bonded.

By Michael on Sunday, April 21, 2024 - 20:13

My question is, what does this service give you that be my AI doesn't?

By Tarja on Sunday, April 21, 2024 - 20:13

It gives you nothing. Everything is the same except that for Aira you can waste your money but Be My Eyes is totally free. Some years ago Aira was available in my App Store as well and I remember that I uninstalled the app as fast as I downloaded it and now it is removed from my App Store so it is not available worldwide. I only see Aira Explorer now but I’m not sure if it works in Europe at all. But Be My Eyes is available worldwide and it is totally free.

By Holy Diver on Sunday, April 21, 2024 - 20:13

I just want to start off by saying I, too have been testing access AI for a little while now and it does offer several significant advantages.
1. Detailed Image capture: This is my main reason for using access AI more than Be my Eyes. I can choose the camera I want for the shot, turns out telephoto with 3x zoom is great for OCR even when my main camera struggles a bit. Similarly I can use the wide or ultrawide cameras on my phone but I honestly just like switching between ultrawide and telephoto depending on the kind of shot. The other nice thing about detailed image capture is you can ask the AI to answer specific questions before it even processes your picture. This is great for internet screenshots for example where I can just ask it to read me the text or ask a very specific question so it doesn’t read me all these other things I don’t need.
2. The interface is a little better. It's easier to share things from the app, mark responses as helpful or not helpful, verify with an agent if you want. It's just designed a little better than Be my AI and I like how the android and iOS versions feel very similar, Be my AI’S sharing process is a little easier on android but the standardization is nicer with aira.
3. It could just be me but it seems like Access AI is a little faster than Be my Eyes with its responses. It's not by a huge margin but it just seems a little quicker. Anyways, that's why access AI is my default now.

By Tara on Sunday, April 21, 2024 - 20:13

Hi all,
My understanding is that Access AI is free, but if you want to verify things with an agent in the future, that'll eat into your free 5 minutes. That's what it sounded like from a podcast I was listening to anyway. For the moment though it's all free, even verification with an agent.

By Holy Diver on Sunday, April 21, 2024 - 20:13

So first off I love running images from my gallery through the detailed image capture, like let’s say it's a chart or graph in a screenshot and I just want to know one data point. Be my Eyes will go through all the trouble telling me stuff I already know or don’t need to know about the size of the graph, what it's covering, the notifications on my phone screen, I just love being able to cut through all that when I already know what I want.
Now to my actual point it's free for now. I’m an optimist, I like the glass to be half full but I just don’t see how this expensive service can continue forever without some kind of monitizing. Grants only go so far.

By Assistive Inte… on Sunday, July 7, 2024 - 20:13

Wiht the ARx AI Wearable Camera and the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.